San Diego County supervisor to resign after assault lawsuit
SAN DIEGO — A strong San Diego County supervisor mentioned he’ll resign amid accusations that he sexually assaulted a authorities worker, finishing a swift and surprising fall for a embellished Marine fight veteran whose star rose along with his Democratic Get together’s ascendancy within the nation’s eighth-largest metropolis.
Nathan Fletcher, who defected from the Republican Get together in 2012, was elected to a second time period on the county board of supervisors with 65% of the vote in November, two years after Democrats received a board majority that eluded their grasp for many years.
Fletcher, 46, was the face of the San Diego area’s muscular response to COVID-19 at each day information conferences. He turned half of San Diego’s strongest political couple after his 2017 marriage to Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, a widely known liberal Democratic state assemblywoman who turned a high California labor chief final 12 months.
Fletcher’s progressive positions and telegenic presence made him a stable favourite to succeed one other distinguished California politician, Toni Atkins, within the state Senate. However he introduced late Sunday that he was dropping his bid after lower than two months to hunt remedy for post-traumatic stress dysfunction and alcohol abuse.
Days later, Fletcher resigned as chair of the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System after a authorities staffer alleged sexual harassment and assault in a lawsuit that included screenshots of lurid messages from Fletcher.
Hours after that, Fletcher mentioned he would resign from the county board of supervisors, calling the stress on his household over the past week “immense and insufferable.”
“A mix of my private errors plus false accusations has created a burden that my household shouldn’t need to bear,” he mentioned. He’ll depart workplace Could 15.
Fletcher’s fall jolted town per week after officers made a vital flip in a saga that has captivated town and threatened different high politicians.
A 2017 lease-to-own deal for workers to occupy a 19-story downtown workplace constructing turned disastrous after asbestos and different deficiencies have been found and rendered the area uninhabitable. Jason Hughes, an unpaid adviser to town on the deal, pleaded responsible final week to a misdemeanor and agreed to repay $9.4 million that he collected in a twin position as adviser to the constructing’s vendor, Cisterra LLC.
The deal was bungled underneath Mayor Kevin Faulconer, certainly one of California’s most promising Republican leaders till a powerful defeat in a failed 2020 recall effort towards Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat.
Brian Adams, a political science professor at San Diego State College, likened Fletcher to different fallen leaders, together with Andrew Cuomo and Eliot Spitzer, each former governors of New York, and former U.S. Sen. John Edwards.
“They have been all seen having promising futures collapse over sexual harassment claims,” mentioned Adams.
Fletcher’s identify entered conversations about who San Diego may elect to be mayor or a member of Congress, Adams mentioned. His troubles might open the way in which for brand new faces if Todd Gloria, the Democratic mayor, faces questions over how he dealt with fallout from the actual property debacle.
San Diego’s political drama doesn’t seem to have gripped residents like earlier scandal, together with the resignation in 2013 of Bob Filner, the primary Democratic mayor in 20 years, after weeks of near-daily allegations of harassing ladies, together with metropolis staff.
A Republican mayor, Dick Murphy, resigned in 2004 after a pension disaster made San Diego a poster little one for monetary mismanagement.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in San Diego Superior Court docket, the federal government staffer says she started exchanging messages with Fletcher in 2021 when he began visiting her social media accounts. He as soon as wrote, “Dwelling alone — no spouse and youngsters.” He urged her to delete his texts and be discreet.
The staffer says Fletcher kissed her within the stairway of a lodge the place he was staying in Could 2022. Weeks later, he allegedly texted her throughout a gathering that he had for 5 minutes and requested her to go to an adjoining convention room, the place he kissed and grabbed her.
The employee was fired Feb. 6 after she “tried to interact in significant, pre-litigation discussions with Fletcher to resolve her claims quietly and amicably,” her lawsuit says. On Sunday, simply earlier than Fletcher ended his Senate run, Fletcher’s legal professional threatened to sue the employee for extortion, she mentioned.
Fletcher acknowledged “consensual interactions” with somebody outdoors his marriage.
“I haven’t performed the issues which are alleged however I did violate the fundamental belief of my marriage and set a horrible instance for our kids,” he mentioned in a press release.
San Diego County Democratic Get together Chair Becca Taylor mentioned Thursday that Fletcher’s resolution to resign was applicable, echoing different political leaders.
Gonzalez Fletcher, govt secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation, mentioned she loves her husband and believes “his identify shall be cleared” however that she urged him to resign.
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This story was first revealed on March 30, 2023. It was up to date on March 30, 2023 to take away the identify of the federal government employee making accusations of sexual assault, per Related Press coverage.